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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  September 1, 2011 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT

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a year. >> it may. but we can all sit back and say well none of these things are going to work, or they can actually do something and believe in some success. >> and it's up to the president to finally propose a solution. >> rich, you know that's not true. the president has been doing this for a last two years, and the republicans have stonewalled all along. >> you guys owned everything for the last three years. so we haven't been doing it for two years. >> which is why it's hard to do anything i think at this point. >> we like each other. >> i know you do. we'll have you back to be nice to each other. hilary rosen and rich, thanks. >> appreciate it. and that's all tonight. "ac 360" starts right now. >> candy, thanks very much. good evening. we begin tonight keeping them honest with a man who says he has done enough lying for a brutal dictator. for months we have been showing videos. some of it we warn you is incredibly tough to watch of syrian forces killing ordinary
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syrians, and hearing first-hand accounts from the people being shot at. we've shown you photos, many photos of children slaughtered in the streets by the assad regime, or taken, tortured, and killed, their bodies mutilated almost beyond recognition. i know it's all difficult to look at, but it is what is happening in syria. it is the truth. all the while, in spite of all these videos and all that evidence, members of the regime, all the way up to the top to bashir al assad have been telling us what is brutally plain to see isn't happening at all or isn't what it seems. the denial is systematic, and it is staggering. but for tonight for one member of the assad regime, it is over. >> i the attorney general of hack mad announce my resignation from my position in the state that is shadowed by assad and his gangs. >> adnan al bakour, his whereabouts now unknown. his videotaped resignation surfacing on youtube.
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he said he could no longer stomach the regime's brutal treatment of protesters in hama and refused to lie what he himself has seen. >> i summarize the causes of my resignation by the following. one, the killing of the prisoner in the central prison of hama on sunday, july 31st, 2011. their number is 72 prisoners of the peaceful demonstrators and political activists. they have been buried in mass graves near the village of al haladea beside the military security branch in hama. >> this by the way is video from hama on the 31st. as you can see, the killing is going on outside the prison walls as well. [ gunshots ] how many times have you seen this? protesters shot dead or wounded in the streets, and those who try to rescue them get shot as
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well. this is a video of mass graves near hama. this is apparently ewhat general bakkour is talking about. it's not the only mass grave we seen. a family is buried in this one we're told and many more across syria. the former attorney general details the killing and mass burial of 72 prisoners and 420 others in hama. in his resignation tape, he explicitly names 14 officials, military commanders and service members for their role in the slaughter of unarmed civilians. he also makes it perfectly clear that he was told to lie about what he saw. >> translator: i was asked to present a report declaring that these victims were killed by the hand of armed gangs. >> armed gangs. now armed gangs. if that term sounds familiar to you, it's because armed gangs are part of the official cover story which comes from the very top. just about every one of these officials, these slick-suited officials from the dictator,
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syria's dictator bashir als a sard to the ambassador to the u.n. who we spoke with on this program, all of them speak about the uprising as being from armed gangs. the uprising to students at damascus university. damascus university, he blamed it on outsiders, agitators, armed gangs of roving criminals. he was very, very specific, the dictator was. >> translator: what is their number? personally, i was surprised by this number. i thought they were a couple of thousands in the past. the number in the beginning of this crisis was 64,400. mash that number of number of people in different legal cases whose sentencing ranges from a couple of months to execution, and they have escaped justice. >> he claims 64,400 armed members of armed gangs, terrorists, thugs, eluding capture in a talayan police
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state. faced with that defiance, the regime of course is fighting back, reporting he had been kidnapped, forced at gunpoint to make his statement. then another tape surfaced. >> translator: i am judge adnan bakkuor, the former attorney general. i resigned in protest of the brutal practices of the regime against the peaceful protest protesters. and what the syrian tv has aired that i have been kidnapped by armed groups is untrue. i am now protected by the oppositions, and i'm in good health. today is wednesday, august 31st. the secret security tried to kidnap me today, but they failed to do so. and i will make live statements as soon as i leave syria soon. >> so tonight the assad regime can no longer lie with quite the same impunity, confident that everyone is on the same page.
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as of tonight, everyone is not on the same page there is now a crack in the wall of lies. and there is new evidence tonight of their regime's brutality. amnesty international reporting what it calls a significant escalation in the number of people who died in the hands of authorities. judging by some of the video we've seen including protesters beaten and stuffed in car trunks, you can see why. in a typical year, five syrians die in custody. currently that is 88. 88 dead, and that's not for the entire year either. it's 88 dead between april and mid-august. that's the people they know about. a researcher for amnesty saying the accounts of torture we have receive ready horrific. we believe the syrian government to systematically persecuting its own people on a vast scale. joining me the bureau chief anthony shedid. what do you make of this apparent defection? >> i like the way you put it. i think it sums it up there. is a crack in the wall of lies.
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here is a man who is a man of the syrian state. i listen to his tape. i listen to him speaking in arabic, clear process. he named names. he gave facts. he gave numbers. and we've been looking for defections. the opposition in syria has been waiting for defections. we now have one from within the inner circle of the regime. it is not easy. it's not minor league being the attorney general for hama. hama has always been, if you will, a contested city and a different city for the regime. to have a man who was sent to hama break with the regime is no small thing. >> anthony, you snuck into syria and reported from there earlier. what is the situation there? how do you think people there are reacting to this tape, to this news? >> you know, i think it's still unclear why he defected, how he defected and who helped him defect. when you hear from his statements that he is speaking in some ways as a hama resident. you have to remember this is a city that bears the trauma of
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what happened in 1982, the crackdown in 1982 in which at least 10,000 died, and perhaps many more. as you listen to him speak, he is speaking as a resident there, as someone who remembers the crimes that were committed back in 1982, who understood what has happened since that uprising began. i think they're going to welcome him and how remarkably. in some ways both of you will mention, there is a crack in the regime. we're hearing things we haven't heard before, this idea of mass graves, of 10,000 arrests. these are numbers that even go beyond the opposition merited on has transpired in the city over the past couple of months. >> anthony, i had the syrian ambassador to the united nations on this program a couple of weeks ago. and he insists that they invite journalists into syria, that they're free to travel around, they can go anywhere they want, talk to whomever you want without any interference. that that your experience there? >> that's ridiculous. these are very, very scarce to
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go into syria. once they're given, once they're granted, you're under very specific restrictions on what you can do and what you can do. that's what kind of motivated us to try to get in there a different way. simply we wanted to find out what was going on in not only hama. >> why does a regime, fouad, like this, lie about things which are clearly demonstrably -- things that you can clearly demonstrate as being untrue. the lie about journalism. i was there years ago and had a minder following my every move, and that was during a time there wasn't an uprising. >> the question you ask about all regimes manufacture truth. do the man of the regime, really believe? >> right. the ambassador is in a slick suit, clearly an intelligent guy. does he actually believe the lies that are coming out of his mouth? >> thing comes a time when the dividing line between invention, and if you will, inventing things and really believing them really vanishes. these people, the men of the regime are stuck in this regime.
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they can't abandon it. they don't know how to get out of it. and i think we have to understand something now about syria today. the month of ramadan was a very, very difficult month for the people facing the regime. and the month ended and we now still are in this cul-de-sac in syria. and it still remains a resistible force the people of syria and the movable object, the regime. and they haven't figured out how to push it over the edge. >> you write about the time you spent in syria recently. what do you come away with? and what should people watching tonight know what is going on right now? >> well, i think i have to say, i actually think there are a lot of people who still believe what the government is saying. i think there are two narratives throughout. >> do you believe government officials believe it, or syrian people? >> thing is a lot of fear in syria still. i think among minorities, among sectors of the country there is fear that what is happening right now is an islamist
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opposition that is going to imperil their status in the country. i don't want to be dismissive of the government still having some support there. that is clear. what struck me and what i tried to write about in the times magazine is the opposition, the uprising, the people who are fighting the government are simply not going to give up. there is no way. they simply passed the point of no return. this is going to last i think until the fall of the government. how long that takes, what shape it takes, how it is brought about is still obviously very important questions. it's clear to me this uprising is not going to be repressed. >> fouad and anthony, stay right there. today syrian television aired what it called a message from moammar gadhafi. on it the voice declares that libya's capital has been moved from tripoli to sirte. it called on libyans to rise up against the west. >> translator: the imperialists will not be able to fight through a long war. and they will retreat day by day. and their resistance will
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diminish day by day. begin for a guerrilla warfare and fighting inside city warfare. and be like a bee sting and fly. and fight across libya, the whole area. >> it would be comic if it weren't so tragic. he is practically telling libyans to float like a butterfly and sting is like a beach. somewhere mohamed ali is throwing up. what do you think that gadhafi is still able to make the speeches, still able to get word out? >> you know, anderson, in preparing for this segment with you, i listened both to adnan bakkour and of course also to moammar gadhafi. i was shocked by gadhafi. it was another reminder of the cruelty of the man, of the illiteracy of the man. i had never focused on how ignorant he is and how uneducate head was.
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it is really like a werewolf baying at the moon and calling on people to join him in a revolution against nato and against colonialism there is something about gadhafi, and it's really this incredible moment of unbelievable incoherence. you know he is going to make these tapes and thanks to the syrians, he is going to send them. no one will be believe him. no one will listen to him. >> another extension on the deadline to surrender. gadhafi is promising a fierce fight. is that all just talk? does he have enough force in his few remaining strongholds to actually make good on that promise? >> i don't think he himself has enough strength to do anything. i think he wants to impose himself with some kind of insurgent leader. that's not going to happen. the unresolved questions in the country is what share is everyone going to get if the pie is divvied up in libya going forward. and i think that's the question to ask about sirte. can sirte negotiate its participation in the new order?
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and what shape will that participation take? i think those are questions that aren't resolved yet. the traditional council right now is at at a delicate point. not only with the new emerging across the country, it has to do with the more mundane task of bringing water back to tripoli, electricity, the medical supplies, the hospitals. it's got a very significant, a very formidable challenge ahead of it. >> fouad ajami and anthony shadi di. follow me on facebo facebofaceboo facebook @andersoncooper. this is shocking. big stuff. a new study on possible dust at ground zero ten years and cases of cancer in firefighters. it could make a big case for firefighters who are not currently cover for cancer based on older research. later, ungodly discipline. we're looking into a network of
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christian reform schools for so-called troubled teens. they're facing accusations now tonight of abuse for allegedly taking discipline way too far. aisha. there are new developments in irene's aftermath and amazing stories emerging tonight. we'll take you inside the rescue and recovery effort in one flooded community. and speak with a volunteer fire who has been helping out. that and much more when "360" continues. [ doorbell rings ] hello there. i'm here to pick up helen. ah. mom? he's here. nice wheels. oh, thanks. keeps me young. hello there, handsome. your dinner's in the microwave, dear. ♪ where do you want to go? just drive. [ engine revs, tires screech ]
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e-trade. investing unleashed. breaking news tonight that might mean the world to the men and world who rushed the trade center, kept working in a toxic cloud of dust and rubble. a lot of the early responders, mainly firefighters who started falling ill, some with cancer. right now they're not eligible for benefits under recent federal law because they do not recognize a link between cancer and the 9/11 dust. earlier tonight the medical journal the lancet relosed a study a few hours ago that firefighters are at greater risk of cancer. the firefighters who responded to 9/11, the lead author of the study is the fire department's lead medical officer. dr. sanjay gupta joins us with the details. suggests that the dust produced by the collapse of the twin towers is making first
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responders sick? >> that is right. i think what is difference here is the idea that would cause some sort of illness, primarily respiratory problems, i think that's been pretty well established. what has been at odds and a bit controversial, frankly, for some time is the possibility relationship between the dust and cancer. there have been some studies that have shown no links, some small studies that have shown a very small link. this one is a much more significant study. it's a ten-year study now, anderson, looking over the last ten years. they followed the firefighters all along this time. and what they basically concluded was there was an association, a 19% increased risk of developing cancer for fireworkers who were first responders who worked on the pile at 9/11. and if they included all cancers, including cancers that developed soon after 9/11, the association was even higher. a 32% increased risk. the lead author, as you just mentioned called this pretty significant to me. i interviewed him about this specifically.
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listen to what he had to say. >> as we start seeing cancers, we want to answer their question, is cancer increased? and i will have to tell you that my initial bias was for the first 10 or 15 years we would not see an increase. that's another reason why our findings are so strong. because i actually thought we would find the opposite. >> so you're surprised? >> very much. so whether we can say that cancer is increased in other responders or area residents, we have no idea. this is a study about firefighters. their exposure is so unique. >> all right. >> 85% of the exposed were present in the first 48 hours of the collapse when the exposure was massive. that is a very unique exposure. >> for firefighters watching, they have the lingering question why did i get this cancer and was it related to the dust. and you would say what? >> for most instances it was world trade center-related.
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>> pretty remarkable to hear that, anderson. again, what he is saying is something that a lot of people haven't been able to definitively say. two quick caveats. as he said, this study was a fireworkers specifically. he is not making generalizations about other people in lower manhattan or other responders. even though it is ten years since 9/11, this would still be considered an early study as far as cancer goes. as we've talked about before, anderson, you and i, it can take 15, 20, even 30 years sometimes for cancers to develop. >> and what is frustrating obviously for a lot of the first responders, a lot of the firefighters is they were just told by the federal government in this new health bill there is not a link because there is no proof of a link, and therefore they won't get covered. i know you have been studying the content of the dust from 9/11 for some time now. is it toxic? how does it actually hurt people who inhaled it? >> yeah, it's interesting. first of all, it's a wholly unique situation. the amalgamation of the
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chemicals that were blown together, benzene, asbestos, all these things, was a situation that most toxicologists have never seen before. and a lot of the chemicals sort of bound to the dust. so the mist of dust you saw over the lower manhattan area wasn't just a dust, it was this dust contaminated with all these various chemicals. what we know is when you breathe in dust like this, it can cause immediate health problems. people refer to it as the world trade center cough. but then ultimately as it got further, deeper into the bronchials, it was almost like sandpaper causing an inflammation that now dr. prezant and others believe may have been the genesis of the cancers. respiratory problems, yes. that made sense to everybody. the cancers they're starting to develop some ideas as to the mechanism, looking at that dust. >> and these are folks who rushed down there and worked there for weeks and weeks and months and months. regardless of their own concerns at the time about not having the proper equipment or anything.
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they were there every single day and around the clock. based on the results of the new study, will these people be able to get coverage? >> you know, anderson, i can tell you, i think this is going to be one of the more controversial things with regard to health, and certainly with with regard to health and the pile that you're looking at there. it's already been a big source of controversy. what i will say is we reached out to niash, the national institute of occupational safety. they say they're going to take this into account. they haven't changed their recommendations since july, but at their next review meeting which is next year, the study is going to be one of the studies they look at. >> next year i think for a lot of firefighters hearing that is going to feel like -- >> it's going to feel like a long time away. >> a lifetime away. sanjay, appreciate it. thank you very much. you have a busy day. you can see sanjay's full investigation of the health fallout from 9/11 in rare never before seen footage in his documentary "terror from the dust" this wednesday on cnn.
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coming up, in devastating aftermath in irene. homes, businesses completely destroyed. i'm going get the latest from a volunteer firefighter working right now in craftsville. and later, ungodly discipline. reporting on a fundamentalist baptist boarding school in indiana, and allegations of physical and emotional abuse based on the bible of its students. details ahead. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. [ male announcer ] it's been a good year for the chevy silverado. and not because of the awards or the accolades. no, it was good because you told us so. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. just announced -- celebrate labor day with an additional $500 bonus cash. with all other offers, including the all-star edition discount,
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the devastation in several northern states after hurricane irene is becoming more evident as the days go by. in vermont, fema is making federal aid available after president obama declared disaster in the state. officials are making progress on fixing roads to some isolated towns. and the national guard is trying to help bring in supplies. vermont got some of the worst flooding from the storm, as did upstate new york, where a group of communities south and west of albany has been designated. residents of pratsville say they
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have had flooding before, but it's never been like this. families are homeless. two brothers have been running a gas station in the family for generations. they don't know what to do next. >> we have nothing left. there is absolutely nothing there but concrete. the concrete slab. >> do you want to rebuild. as you can see, the land cannot there. we have no land to put our business on. it's gone. >> earlier i spoke with matt cangialosi, a volunteer firefighter who has been helping with the recovery effort. matt, you say you've never seen destruction like this before. >> for my last 23 years of my life that i have lived, i have never seen destruction from mother nature, one-on-one, firsthand like this before. >> i mean, the pictures that i'm seeing, it looks like a tornado has come through the town. >> yeah. it really does. it looks like all the trailers and all the homes were picked up and moved a good 100 yards or
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more, depending on what part of town you're in. >> and it looks like a lot of homes have just been completely destroyed. >> without a doubt. all of main street, the homes either have moved off their foundations or completely just caved in itself. >> and all of that is from water? >> all that was from water. we -- the news it shows henry county that had dumped about 13.3 inches within just a few hours. >> was water coming from other places? or was it just the amount of rainfall in the town? >> where we are, we're in the mountains. so there was a lot of runoff from the mountains that were coming down through the streams that were running into the main creek that runs through our town. we had another creek that comes from the windham area down towards pratt. and then we have this creek that
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comes from hunter that comes down to pratt. so kind of all bottlenecked right down towards our town. >> and you're a volunteer firefighter. you must be now working around the clock. what kind of stuff have you been doing? >> what we've been doing is trying to get out a lot of supplies, water, food. any type of rations that red cross has brought in, national guard has brought in, and getting them out to people that can't access the center of town. we've been taking utility four-wheelers and other vehicles to get through certain areas and to try and cross bridges that have they have deemed to be unsafe for vehicles other than emergency vehicles that need to get to the other side. >> right now, what are the biggest priorities? >> we've been going around now. our job has been going around making sure that the houses are safe to get in for people to get their stuff out. the water rose up to the first floor in every house on main street. so once you pumped out their basements and everything, now
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the job is to get all the furniture that was ruined out on to the streets, or close to the street to where we are anyone to pick it up and put it in containers and get it out of here so we can start rebuilding again. >> matt cangialosi, i appreciate you calling in. and good luck to you and keep doing what you're doing. our best to everybody in town. >> thank you. thanks a lot. we really appreciate it. >> some of the other stories we're following, aisha joins us with the "360" bulletin. >> forecasters are predicting a low-pressure system off mississippi's coast will become a tropical storm tomorrow and dump up to 15 inches of rain in louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. bp and exxonmobil are evacuating their rigs in the gulf and have already shut down the wells. meantime, hurricane katia has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it is expected to strengthen again over the next 24 to 36 hours. tonight it's less than a thousand miles east of the northern leeward islands. president obama will now
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unveil his jobs plan before a joint session of congress on thursday night at 7 p eastern. the president's first choice wednesday conflicted with a gop presidential debate, and house speaker boehner objected. and in congresswoman gabby gifford's hometown is defending a raffle of a gun, the same make that jared loughner used to shoot her in the head as she was meeting with constituents earlier this year. six people died in the attack. the head called the fundraisering upsetting. it seems a little odd to me. time now to look at the shot. we're going to file this under dog days of summer. we found it on youtube. a clever puppy staying cool. take a look. >> awww.
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>> i could watch the dog's ears flap all day. >> he is being dreaming about -- oh, he's kind of got a good spot there. >> he's smart. he's no fool. >> he is adorable, no doubt about it. but of course you got us thinking about a certain shar-pei, remember? and his napping habits. [ snoring ] >> it never gets old. >> did we just play the other day? we're already recycling because we like it so much. why not. we'll check in with aisha a little later on. more serious stuff ahead. ungodly discipline. some very disturbing allegations of harsh abuse and brainwashing even at a fundamentalist baptist home for so-called troubled teens. some former residents call it a house of horrors. we'll try to find out the truth. plus, a major development in the case against joran van der
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welcome back. up close our "360" ungodly discipline. we've been looking into a network of christian reform schools that indicator to fundamental baptist churches. these so-called homes for troubled teens can be traced back to rolloff who founded the home for girls in 1967. he used a girls singing group, the honeybee quartet to promote the home. ♪ ♪ and all of my worry is vain ♪ yes, my faith in jesus abides ♪ >> despite the marketing pitch, rolloff's homes for girls faced multiple allegations of abuse. and another home that grew out of that is facing allegations.
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here is gary tuchman. >> reporter: i'm about to meet a man who i know doesn't want to talk to me. my name is gary tuchman with cnn. we know that because don williams and his father ron had already told news an e-mail they would not comment about abuse that allegedly happened for many years on the secluded property in the northern indiana town of wynonna lake. the house is a self-described fundamentalist baptist boarding school and church for girls. the allegations are so disturbing, we felt we needed a face-to-face meeting with the father and the son in charge. we found the son in a parking lot. we've had a lot of people complain that they have been physically, emotionally abused at your house. can you give awes comment about that? >> well, i would rather not. >> reporter: our conversation did not end there. but first, let us introduce you to susan gratti, who is now 45, but spent two and a half years there starting when she was 15. >> it was going to be gardening and crafts and singing and just a chance to heal.
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>> so that's what your parents thought the school was going to be. >> that's right. >> was it in any way correct? >> no, no. and i knew that the minute the door shut behind me. >> reporter: on her first day in this house, which was the facility used back then, susan says she was accused of having a bad attitude while cleaning the ceiling. so two staff women grabbed her and don williams' father administered what he called godly discipline. >> bodily manhandled me to the floor. and he hit me with a board as hard as he could. he is a very big man. and i was shocked. i'd never been hit like that. >> reporter: michelle dowelling is 20 years old. she just got out of hepziba house. >> they told me it would be good for me and i would make good life-changing decisions. >> reporter: mechelle was only 12 and brand-new in the house
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when she says two staff members told her to take off her clothes and forced her into the closet where a man would give what the house claims is a medical examination. >> they held both of my legs and both of my arms down and let him do this to me. he stuck a speculum inside of me. i was scared. i was screaming and i didn't want him to touch me. and there was nothing i could do. >> reporter: both women talk about being forced to eat a lot of food, sometimes not being given any food, being forced to drink a lot of water. 28 girls shared three bedrooms on the upper floor of this house. there was one toilet. but -- >> if i stood up to go to the bathroom, no, you can only go to the bathroom when you're told. >> reporter: the girls you were with. >> right. >> reporter: what would happen if you would go to the bathroom? >> you would be paddled. >> i would wet the bed every night i was there. and they would make a spectacle of you. you were this horrible person for doing this. ended up having to wear pull-ups
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ever night. they would watch me put it on and make me show it to them when i would take it off in the morning. >> >> reporter: lots of people complained about getting beaten, emotionally tormented, emotionally tormented all in the name of religion. and as a lot of us who are very religious don't believe in hitting people and tormenting them and having them wear diapers and making them drink and eat things. i want to know why you do that? >> i prefer not to comment, sir. >> reporter: why can't you comment? if you believe in what you do, this is your chance to tell our viewers. >> i understand that. i prefer not to. >> reporter: if you can tell me why. i'm asking very respectfully, why don't you want to tell us? >> well, i'm respectfully declining. >> reporter: don williams is also the pastor at the church on the house grounds. a former computer goer gave cnn a cd sold by the church in which williams is apparently preaching his views about who is to blame when a male whistles at a female. >> if you girls are walking down the sidewalk and some fellas drive buy and they whistle, you
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better stop and think about that. what drew that whistle? was it the way i was walking? or maybe the way i was dressed or whatever? did do something to defraud those men? >> reporter: their website features innocuous pictures of girls who attended and claims there are no spankings or any out of the ordinary punishments. this facility has been around for about four decades. it seems to be a thriving enterprise. as you can see, the people in charge don't particularly want to answer my questions. be uwe're not alone. they don't really answer to the government either. in indiana, group homes operated by churches and religious ministries are exempt from listenser. so nobody in the government even knows what is going on behind closed doors. the women say their parents also had no idea what was going on in there. in the 15 months you were in this house, how many times did you leave the grounds? >> never. never. >> reporter: zero? >> zero. >> reporter: the indiana governor's office says there is
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nothing it can do. the attorney general's office says it doesn't have jurisdiction. the same thing with the indiana department of education. notably, though, the indiana department of child services says it could investigate, providing there was a current complaint. and not from someone who already walked out the door. but we have talked to more than a dozen women who say they were victimized. they say they could never make any private phone calms or send uncensored letters while on the inside. the house is not the only facility of its kind. across the country, victim advocates say there are an unknown but large number of similar programs. >> i have nightmares about it all the time. like very vivid dreams like i'm trapped inside of this house again and i can't get out. and like the only thing i want is to run out a door. and for some reason i can't. >> i think i fantasized about suicide those first years out. >> reporter: we wanted to give williams one last chance to answer the allegations. is it true or it is not? it's either yes or no question.
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>> it's not true. >> reporter: so they're lying to us? >> see, that's where you're trying to get me backed into a corner. it's their word against mine. >> reporter: we were not permitted to take video on house property, but we did walk up the front steps and ring the bell. well saw a girl hustle back into the home. we saw girls through the windows, but nobody would answer the door. >> are officials in indiana really powerless to at least even investigate or stop by? >> no. the governor today or the governor 40 years ago wanted to lobby the legislature, the attorney general, they could absolutely do so, but they have chosen not, to despite the fact we have talked to more than a dozen women ages 18 to 50, different generations who all say they have experienced the same thing. >> can the government do anything? >> yes. congress is considering passing legislation to help stop child abuse in boarding school facilities. it passed the house. this was three years ago, but it
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died in a senate committee and it has never been reintroduced. >> interesting. gary, appreciate the reporting. tomorrow gary is going to have much more on the story in a special hour-long record called ungodly discipline, tomorrow at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern. up next, joran van der sloot charged with murder in peru, charged with killing a young woman at a hotel. plus, massive waves hitting people who are brave or crazy enough to gather to watch them. we'll tell you where and why this happened. and later, t-shirt trouble for jcpenney. a message on a shirt for girls, "i'm too pretty to do homework." it's drawn fire and landing on our ridiculist. and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough.
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coming up, the t-shirts that have jcpenney on the defensive, the ones for your daughter that say, quote, i'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me. the fashion disaster lands on the ridiculist. but first aisha is back with the "360" bulletin. >> peruvian authorities have formally charged joran van der sloot with the murder of a you
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think woman in a lima hotel in may 2010. more than a year after he was arrested as a suspect in the case. prosecutors are also for a 30-year prison sentence and demand he pay $73,000 in restitution to the family of stephany flores, the victim. van der sloot was once the prime suspect in the disappearance natalee holloway but he was never charged in that case. warren jeffs is out of intensive care and in a general hospital bed. the convicted child rapist fell early this week while fasting behind bars. a deal to shore up the finances of the struggling new york mets has fallen apart. hedge fund manager david einhorn has pulled out of his plans to invest $200 million in the baseball team. among the team's financial troubles, mets owners invested millions in bernie madoff's firm and are now being sued for property off the massive ponzi
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scheme. massive waves, some nearly 60 feet high crashed ashore. the waves slammed into spectators who gathered to look at the ast mom cal tide. the waves were larger this year due to a typhoon. and anderson, in southern florida, a 90-year-old woman had to get her left leg amputated after an eight-foot-long alligator attacked her and tried to drag her into a canal. she was saved by a man who was driving by the canal and saw what was happening. he shot the alligator behind the eyes and it crawled back into the water. authorities don't know if it's alive or dead. >> that's crazy. >> absolutely insane. apparently it came out of the water three times to pull this woman back in. >> wow. and they move really fast. >> they move really, really fast. and did you know that the more reports of this kind of activity at this time of year. did you know that? >> oh really? like alligator attacks increase? really? >> they say according to the spokesman of the state's fish and wildlife conservation
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commission, she says alligators are most active at this time of year while water levels are high. >> are you talking to an al gator? are you looking down at an al gator? >> yes, i'm looking at a little alligator telling me all this stuff. >> here is a check with piers morgan. >> tonight with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks looming, i'll talk to man who says america has moved on. the greatest threat to the country now might be the economy, not terrorists. frank rich, "new york" magazine columnist is here. also ask him why he thinks president obama may be a one-term president, and why he calls rick perry and michele bachmann a blast. plus, josh groban as you have never seen him before. singing my tweet ♪ this parrot is the most amazing animal you've ever seen. amazing ♪ >> piers, that's a desperate attempt to increase your twitter followers by having josh groban
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sing your tweets. that's terrible. >> i don't know if you have noticed, but i'm beginning to catch you up rather quickly. >> oh really? i'm sweating. >> if your viewers would like to focus on @piersmorgan, we could take you down by christmas. >> take me down by christmas. as i recall, you set a three-month deadline for passing me, and i believe the clock is ticking. >> in that case, i'll crack on tonight. just be wary, anderson. i'm coming for you. >> all right. i'm sweating there, piers. thank you very much. we'll watch in about ten minutes from now. the t-shirt that dares to ask the question, can a girl be too pretty to do homework? the outrage over this shirt comes in one size only, extra large. the ridiculist is next. i can't enjoy my own barbecue with these nasal allergies.
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time now for the ridiculist. tonight we're adding jcpenney. you may have heard the store was selling a t-shirt for girls just in time for back to school and blazed in with this putt think
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proclamation. "i'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." the shirt was for sale and the description said who has time for homework when there is a new justin bieber album that is out? she'll love this t-shirt that is just as cute and sassy as she is. no surprise, these shirts caused some moral outrage. a lot of moral outrage, more than you would probably think possible from a comfy jersey. there was an online petition, and jcpenney caved quickly. here is the statement. we agree that the too pretty t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message and we have immediately discontinued its sale. we would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action that we continue to uphold the integrity of the merchandise that they have come to expect. now this debate comes down to two factions, basically. the vast majority of people who say the t-shirt is a hideous message for girls. of course, there are a few people who say let's bring the t-shirt back and make all the girls wear it, like a school
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uniform. let's make all the boys where an i'm with stupid t-shirt and call it a day. and granted, and thankfully that's a very, very small amount of people. the same people what see some of the senn nan begans on toddlers andty yarras probably see it as a how to about installing values. >> this goes like that. >> it does. >> when she wears the fake boobs and the fake butt, it's like an extra bonus. when she comes out on stage, everybody thinks it's hysterical. >> fake bao boobs on a 4-year-old. it's hysterical. girls need to know life is not all about beauty. you can make to it the miss teen competition without education -- and maps. >> some people out there in our nation don't have maps. and i believe that our education, such as in south africa and the iraq, everywhere such as, i believe that they should -- our education over
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here in the u.s. should help the u.s., or should help south africa and should help iraq and the asian countries so we will be able to build up our future. >> overtime. so people are calling the "i'm too pretty to do homework" t-shirt the worst t-shirt in the world. i assume that's including south africa and the iraq, everywhere like such as. but now that the offending t-shirt has been yanked from the shelves, girls are going to have to make do with the other shirts jcpenney sales like my best subjects, boys, shopping, music, dancing shirt there is also the i love bling shirt for girls. and what i love, cupcake, puppies, shopping, peace, my bff. to those who think these shirts are not great for girls' self-esteem, the boy don't have it any easier. here is what they're stuck with. winning isn't everything. it's just what i do.